Bassman Sprint Race Report

2011 Bassman Sprint: 5/1/2011
Race Report #2


Background

Second triathlon of my 2011 campaign and the 102nd of my triathlon career. Fifth time I’ve raced at Bassman—I won my AG the previous four times. However, big change this year as the old 0.5/29/4 format has been changed to 0.35/12/3.1.

170 triathletes started the race with 13 in my AG. Pre-race, it’s clear that it’s a mano-a-mano contest between me and my old bud Tom Dillon. We’ve raced 11 times before and I’ve won 9 of them but over the last two years his performances have surged while mine have not. The smart money says he takes me down this morning.

Race morning dawns clear and very cold—32 degrees in fact (although the conditions will be perfect during the race itself). I get up at 3:15 am and drive the 83 miles to the race site in the state park. I arrive at 5:15 and by 7 I’m locked and loaded and the race begins.

The Swim

The swim is advertised as 0.35 miles. Standing on shore as the early fog sorta’ disperses my eyeballs tell me it’s short. Given the recent history of my swim this is generally not good. However, I’m up against Tom, who in addition to probably being a better triathlete than I (on this morn), is definitely a much better swimmer. In the prior 11 races he has on average been 70 seconds faster than I and has always beat me (the closest I’ve ever swam to him is 16 seconds).

At the start line of the second wave, I line-up way out right and up front. The course is a left-hand turn triangle. I spy Tom siting on the buoy line. You might interpret this as Tom being more aggressive than I, but he breathes right and I breathe left so we are both in our “natural” places. The water here is fabulously clear and this morning is a beautiful 62-64 degrees—perfect for me.

The horn sounds and I surge smartly away. I feel immediately very good despite no in-water warm-up. I quickly gain separation from those in my immediate vicinity and I began to cast a curious gaze over to the left where I see Tom, one or two guys back, and not noticeably gapping me. Nice.

I continue to swim strong out to the first of the three turn buoys, which is about 150-175 yards out. With only 2 minutes between us and the first wave, I’m already having to weave through slower swimmers—which I’m guessing are more so hanging out on my side of the course. Still, I’m making very strong progress and doing a very solid job of tactically navigating the flailing obstacles.

I hit the turn buoy cleanly and notice a line of green caps (my wave) ducking in to the left to avoid the heavy crush of slow orange caps in front of us. I feel very comfortable and after drafting a couple of times decide to swim around the feet in front of me. As we proceed forward, I’m becoming increasingly convinced that I need to go faster. I probably have to adjust my attitude on the swim. I’ve been a MOP swimmer for so long that I don’t yet fully operationalize the fact that I’m one of the strongest swimmers now.

I hit the second turn buoy and cruise for home. I’m passing lots of orange hats as well as a few green. It’s very shallow now. People start to walk. I look over and one of the people walking just a few feet in front of me is Tom—very sweet! Everyone does a few dolphin dives and I’m up and climbing out of the lake. I’m a few seconds behind Tom and cannot believe my good fortune. I hit my watch as I hit the shore with an elapsed time of 6:52—for 0.35 miles this translates into a 1:07/100 pace. Right! Obviously, the swim course is very short. My guess is that the course is more like 450-500 yards—some 150 to 200 yards short.

In any event this is a great swim for me. Tom runs up the beach faster than I and I’m content to let it happen. He hits the timing mat 7 seconds in front of me. He is 5th OA out of the water and I am 9th—this represents a 95.3 %-tile OA swim for me—awesome! Of course, I am second in our AG as well. My HR averages just 151 bpm—I definitely could have gone faster!

In my half-IM at Oceanside, I was disappointed by my swim but suspected I was just deficient in long-course swim fitness. I was hopeful when I went short I would be as competitive as last year. The indication from this first race is yes I am—great swim for me! I was pumped as I ran up to T1.

Transition One

I reached my bike—which was right next to Tom’s—a few seconds behind Tom. He was surprised to see me—early advantage RC! I began my T1 process but was very shortly surprised as Tom said “see ya’ on the bike” and was gone. I was stunned by how fast he was—or more accurately, how slow I was relative to him. I seemed to take forever to get going and as I mounted my bike, I guessed I dropped 20-30 seconds or so in T1. My T2 turned out to encompass 2:28 (avg. HR 162). In fact I lost 23 seconds to Tom and actually left T1 30 seconds behind.

In my mind I’m a little miffed that Tom had crushed me in T1. However, being only 30 seconds down leaving T1 was unexpected and greatly to my advantage. Further, it turns out that Tom in fact had the 3rd fastest T1 OA (are you kidding me?) and I actually did pretty well with the 13th fastest (92.9 %-tile). This is a huge testament to Tom. I’ve actually been faster in the majority of our prior T1s and he confessed after the race he had really honed his T1—well, I guess so! As bad as I felt leaving T1, I was actually 2nd fastest in our AG in T1 and in the race and I headed out on the bike fully intent on and very pumped to run Tom down and open up a nice gap prior to the run.

The Bike

This was my first time on the new, shorter sprint course. The first and last mile wind through the access roads inside the park. These are relatively slow with quite a few turns and relatively poor pavement. Upon leaving the park the next 3 miles are the same as the old course but right before the grated bridge, we hang an abrupt left turn and follow a big loop that eventually brings us back to the Park. There is one section that cuts through town and out onto Route 9 so this section was a little tricky with a fair amount of car traffic about. Besides that, the course is very flat and generally free of any real technical challenges.

I wend my way through the Park and pass a modest number of slower bikers. Out on the main roads I begin to light it up. I feel very good initially and my power meter is consistently registering in the 260-300 watt range (at one point I even register 414 watts). There aren’t really many riders in front of me but I do steadily pass them one-by-one. There is no evidence of drafting anywhere that I can see—nice!

Tactically, I guess that I am about 30 seconds behind Tom, which turns out to be (coincidentally) exactly right. In the past, I’ve averaged an 8-9 seconds/mile advantage vs. Tom so I expect to see him around mile 4 or so. I come up on the bridge at mile 4, still feeling fantastic, and while I keep looking up the road, I still haven’t definitively ID’ed him.
I’m also having a bit of a mechanical issue. The flatness of the course dictates that I stay in my big ring and only utilize my smallest 4 rings on the rear cassette—these are the four biggest gears that I have at my disposal. The problem is that the rear derailleur cannot hold the chain in the middle two of these 4 gears—the chain jumps and skips—so I find myself having to frequently choose between too big of a gear (and grind away at 70 rpm) or too small of a gear (at one point I hit an RPM of 106). Consequently, even though I will average 82 rpm for the ride, I spend a significant amount of the ride either significantly below or above my 80-85 rpm target zone.

This problem is not that big of a deal, but I chide myself for not having taken the time to swap out my 53/39 for my aero/chrono 55/42 and replace the rear 12/26 with my flatland 11/23. It’s a small thing, but a careless waste of several seconds at least on this ride—I vow to fix it before next week.

Finally, at mile 6 or so I close on a guy whom I’m convinced is Tom. As I pass, I realize it is not and further, the next rider seems to be several hundred yards further ahead. I look at my average power and I see 268 watts (which confirms what my body is telling me). I’m confused, because this should be more than enough for me to have caught Tom. I decide to push harder and I continue to feel awesome. My legs have that “snap, crackle, pop” feeling that I usually only get late in the season when I’ve raced a lot. Also, I’m having no problem with my hip and am comfortable staying aero (after the race my hip flexor will be pretty sore).

I come up on the next rider after having successfully negotiated the town section around 9 miles or so—and it’s not Tom! I mutter to myself: “trouble in River City dude!” There is another rider not to far ahead and I soon confirm it is Tom. I pass him with about a half-mile to go and as I pass I yell at him for being so fast. I suspected he was stronger put I am shocked by this.

I hit the dismount line and clumsily get off my bike. A second or two latter Tom executes a perfect flying dismount with his shoes still attached to his pedals. My bike split turns out to be 29:59 and I have the bike course at 11.8 miles—a touch short of the advertised 12. My average power is a gratifying 271 watts! Let me digress to put this in perspective:

Since installing my SRM, I have recorded good power files for 28 short-course races. The average power by year for these races is:

2007: 255 watts
2008: 254 watts
2009: 244 watts
2010: 237 watts

While this is a small data set, you can see the negative trend that concerned me enough during the off-season to change up my pre-season bike training. The lowest average I recorded was 195 watts (two weeks after IM Germany—so this is a bad data point) and the highest was 265 watts. Only three times was I able to record at least 260 watts as my average power. Here is the raw data (in parentheses is the distance of the bike leg):

2007
Angels (15.5): 265 watts
Kinetic (17.5): 255
Metroman (10.6): 248
St. Andrews (16): 249
Catfish (12): 258

2008
Hammonton (12.7): 254
St. Andrews (16): 254


2009
Smithfield (9.9): 253
Bumpass (12.5): 241
Devilman (21): 244
Hammonton (12.6): 220
Pocomoke (14.3): 242
Parvin (12.1): 251
St. Andrews (16): 237
Vincentown (14.5): 260
Sunset (16.5): 260
Trimax (18.2): 231
Tuckahoe (12.6): 258
Pine Barrens (24.0): 230
Smallwood (16.5): 247

2010
Devilman (21): 244
Pine Barrens (24): 251
Genesis (15.5): 236
Presidential Lakes (26.1): 241
St. Andrews (16): 250
Stone Harbor (11.5): 195
Walker (17.5): 246
Pine Barrens (23): 235

So power-wise, this was my best short-course performance to date! At an average HR of only 158 bpm, I clearly have more upside from here! If my past seasons are any guide, I’ll increase my ability to run at higher HRs (up to 166-167) as I “race myself into shape”.

Competitively, I have the 5th fastest OA bike split (97.6 %-tile) and the fastest in my AG having put 24 seconds on Tom (the delta when we hit the timing mats after a bit of a run through the sand). I’m surprised to have only averaged 23.5 mph with this wattage and the flatness of the course. The fastest split by anyone today was equivalent to 24.3 mph so perhaps the slower sections in the Park is the reason that my speed is not closer to 25 mph. That said, I think part of the reason may be a few minor tweaks that I have been too lazy to implement to date. My position in front is 6mm higher now than normal—I made this adjustment before Kona last year as a concession to my hip problems—I need to put it back down in the more aero position now. I also did not change out my chain rings from the standard set-up I used at IMCA70.3 to my aero chain-rings. I’ll have these things corrected for next week’s race and it should give me some extra speed.

Back to the race. Tom had the 9th fastest bike split and this point we were 3rd and 4th OA:

1. Fabian --------
2. Timmer +1:01
3. Dillon +1:36
4. Christofferson +1:40
5. Ryman +2:06

Age-group wise is well now just a two man race:

1. Dillon --------
2. Christofferson +0:06
3. Jacobs +10:28

Transition Two

As I huffed and puffed my way back to the bike rack I barely had time to congratulate Tom on his ride before he said: “here we go!” Man, what is with this guy and his transitions? I thought I did a reasonable job in T2 as my split was 1:30 (HR=156 bpm). I had the 12th fastest T2 OA (93.5 %-tile) and 2nd in my AG. Tom was 7th OA and more importantly, put another 15 seconds on me in T2. Tom moved into 2nd OA at the start of the run and I was still 4th—just a few seconds out of 3rd—not bad for a couple of 54 YOs!

The Run

As I left T2, Tom was 21 seconds in front of me—and I could see him clearly. I knew that in our previous 11 races, whoever had left T2 first had won the race. I decided that I would try to work very hard early and close down the gap as quickly as I could. I thought I could recover on his shoulder and then surge in the final stages of the run.

My legs felt very heavy and I felt uncoordinated—even by my minimal running standards. I was really pushing but just a few minutes into the race I felt my body beginning to “rig” up on me. Worse, it seemed that despite this extra-effort, Tom seemed to be pulling away from me. I backed down a bit to get my body lined-out and it was soon very evident that Tom was easily running away from me. Time for “plan B”!

Just five minutes in I knew I was beat by a better triathlete. I tried to settle in and run as fast as I could. I knew I had a very strong race up to this point (I didn’t know that I had left T2 in 4th, just out of the top 3 but I wouldn’t have been that surprised given what I knew about my swim and bike).

Soon, every minute or two another younger triathlete would roll past me. Invariably, I’d get a “nice bike” or “good work” from them. From my past experience I know that in-part, this is code for “your run is really slow”.

I hit the first mile in an alarming 8:40 with an average HR of just 158 bpm. My first thought was that the first mile had to be long. But this was quickly replaced by the first mile was just plain slow. When I’m running well my HR is in the 167-172 bpm range. As good as I had felt on the bike, I was feeling just as bad on the run.

Soon I saw the leaders heading back not far past the only turnaround and realized that I really wasn’t that far off the lead. Tom came shortly after them and with the 2-minute wave delta I yelled at him that he was really close to the overall lead. I also soon found when I reached the turnaround that he was now almost 2 minutes in front of me—and obviously pulling away.

My second mile was a little better at 7:57 (159) but still very disappointingly slow. I honestly though I could average under 7:30 today. I kept plugging away remembering that I’m honoring my father with my racing this year.

I kept cruising and finally hit the tape with an elapsed run split of 24:59 (yuch!!!!!). My average HR for the whole run was 159 and my average mile pace (if the course was accurate) was a desultory 8:04. Tom did much better than I and ended up a full 3:09 in front of me. I did manage the 2nd fastest sun split in my AG besting the 3rd place fellow by over 11 and a-half minutes. However I was barely better than half the field as I recorded the 78th best run split and I dropped all the way from 4th to 19th at the finish line (89.4 %-tile).

Final Thoughts

Good on Tom—he was far better than I today and even if I had a very good run, he would have bested me. My swim is strong and as I write this, I just completed my 10th straight day of swimming. I suspect my swim will continue to improve and I should enjoy a real competitive advantage during my short-course races this summer. My pre-season bike work appears to be working exactly as I had hoped—and I do believe I will get faster.

However, I appear to have an entirely different body when it comes to running. I ran yesterday—2 days after the race and felt really poor on the run and yet after an hour rest, I had a fantastic 2-hour ride. My run is way off form. I hope I just had a bad day but I fear I have more a serious problem to fix in the days ahead—we’ll see.

I have to take care of a few “operational” details as well. I’m fixing the issues on my bike and this should help squeeze a little more speed out of my efforts. My left knee is very sore—in fact, I probably will have to rest it until my next race this coming weekend. I have managed to secure an appointment with my ortho and I start another cycle of injections on my knee tomorrow. I think I waited too long to start this cycle.

Still, there is much too feel encouraged by my race efforts at Bassman! Onward and upward…..